Hasbro takes bizarre turn with ‘My Little Pony: Equestria Girls’
If you can’t quite fathom the renewed popularity of Hasbro’s 30-year-old My Little Pony franchise — in animation, comics and merchandising — and the accompanying “bronies” phenomenon, you may not be ready for what comes next.
According to The New York Times, the toymaker is extending its brand with Equestria Girls, which recasts the characters from the animated My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic as human teenagers. It will launch with My Little Pony: Equestria Girls, a full-length animated movie premiering in June at the Los Angeles Film Festival before being released in 200 theaters nationwide. Naturally, a DVD will follow.
The premise is fairly straightforward, as far as these things go: Twilight Sparkle must travel to an alternate universe to find a stolen crown, only to discover there she’s been transformed into a human girl. And so she must not only figure out who committed the crime but also navigate high school.“Our goal is to stay true to who those characters are,” Meghan McCarthy, the movie’s head writer, tells The New York Times. “It’s new but still an extension of our mythology.””It is a major strategic initiative for us,” offers John A. Frascotti, Hasbro’s chief marketing officer, which means we probably shouldn’t be surprised when IDW Publishing announces a My Little Pony: Equestria Girls comic.